(Dress, Zara; shoes, eBay)
Yes, yes, I know: I’ve worn my hair in exactly the same way almost every day since I’ve been here. In fact, they’ve stopped calling me “Sailor Amber” and are now calling me “Girl With Only One Hairstyle”. It’s one part laziness and one part Holiday Hair, in which the sunshine, different water and travel hairdryer all combine to turn my hair into one lanky and yet frizzy mess: awesome!
As the last few days of the holiday approach, I’ve started to worry, not only about the flight home itself, but about the possibility that th flight home might not happen without another 18-hour delay or something: the news this morning carries the usual stories of airport closures and general chaos back home due to the OMGSNOW. One day we’ll get to take a trip without airport stress at either end of it. One day.
Meanwhile, we can’t get over how lucky we are to be enjoying such beautiful weather still. I think the UK must somehow be sucking up all of the bad weather in the universe right now. Good for us, of course, but kind of sucky for everyone at home.
(Me speaking to my mum on the phone: she was telling me all about the latest snowfall, and how they’ve only seen Royal Fail twice in the past three weeks or something – and I really wish I was exaggerating about that. On the plus side, apparently my mum has been able to wear her Russian hat, and Rubin is finding plenty of opportunities to wear his coat, so every snow cloud, silver lining, and all that.)
And now my sunlounger awaits. See you all tomorrow!
Tagged outfits, tenerife, tenerife 2010
(Dress, PinUp Couture; Shoes, River Island)
Well, the wonderful weather we’ve been having broke dramatically last night, with a storm which whipped up just as we took these photos, thus explaining my more-than-usually-gormless expression, plus the fact that I look like I’m wearing a huge petticoat under my dress (I’m not, it’s just the wind. Even I wouldn’t bring a tulle petticoat on holiday with me. Or not very often, anyway.).
Of course, to a sailor such as myself, a rainstorm is nothing, and luckily for us, the sun came back out this morning. We’re hearing disturbing reports from home, though, about a new BIG FREEZE and THE END OF THE WORLD etc, etc, so no complaints here about a bit of rain, nosiree. If it’s true that Royal Fail STILL haven’t managed to get their act together and deliver the parcels I ordered in NOVEMBER, however, there will probably be complaining. Probably quite a bit of it, it’s only fair to warn you.
For now, though, it’s still hot and sunny, and that’s more than good enough for us…
Tagged outfits, tenerife, tenerife 2010
(Dress, Mango; Shoes, eBay)
OK, so I may have banned any more Zara purchases, but no one said anything about Mango, did they?
Yesterday we went for a walk around town (in absolutely glorious, hot sunshine, I might add), and our route happened to take us past one of the many Mango stores they have on this island. This dress was in the window, and as there just so happened to be a sparkly midi-dress shaped hole in my life at the time, well, it would’ve been rude not to have at least tried it on, wouldn’t it? As you can see, I did s little bit more than just “trying on”, but sadly the photos just don’t do this dress justice: it’s a lovely brown and gold colour, with sparkly thread woven through it, and it’s in a lovely thick wool (with sleeves!) which, as well as being ideal for home, is also perfect for the chilly evenings out here. Score. No more Mango now either, though. In fact, no more shopping AT ALL, or they’ll never let me back onto the plane…
(Um, I’m only really wearing dresses in the evening at the moment, hence all of the photos of me on the balcony at night. I promise we ARE doing other things too, it’s just that I don’t have time to tell you about them right now, so I’m concentrating on the dresses!)
Anyway, as I mentioned yesterday, my Internet access is pretty limited, so I’m going to have to cut this one short, too. Suffice to say, we’re having a fantastic time, with better weather than we’d even dared to hope for (in fact, we can’t seem to stop looking at each other and saying, “Look, sunshine! Isn’t this amazing!”) Mind you, after the weather we left behind, it could honestly rain for a fortnight and I’d STILL think we got a pretty good deal…
(Oh, and although I forgot to bring any jewellery and hardly any accessories with me, I DID bring some gold nail polish, which matched my dress perfectly. Little things like this make me happy…)
Tagged tenerife, tenerife 2010, Things I Bought
(Dress: Topshop; Shoes: Zara)
Well, as you can tell from the fact that I’m updating here, we did finally make it to Tenerife, albeit with a bit of a delay and a whole lot of chaos at the airport. The internet access in our hotel, unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, depending on your perspective) isn’t great, so I’m just going to keep these Dressember posts brief, and will fill you all in on the holiday stuff when I get home. Or, you know, maybe not.
Anyway! I did actually wear a dress on day 7 (or rather, night 7), but I couldn’t be bothered taking any photos, so you rejoin my Dressember challenge on Day 8, on which I wore trousers during the day, but changed into this dress for dinner. First, though: MONKEYS!
 Two monkeys
After visiting our monkey friends (I swear to Gaga they remembered us from last time. Or maybe they were just being polite.) we visited Zara.
I may have shopped a bit. Terry may have been persuaded that I urgently needed a pair of peep toes. I may have worn them that very night.
(And by “may”, I mean, “I totally DID.”)
So, as you can see, I started the day in a stripey sweater, which I removed when it got hot, to reveal a stripey tank top. Then in the evening I got changed into a stripey dress. And that’s why they call me Sailor Amber. Or sometimes just That Stripey Freak. Hey, guess what print I like?
No more Zara for the rest of the holiday. I mean it.
(P.S. It was hot and sunny here today. It was like being in paradise…)
Tagged tenerife, tenerife 2010
… because in December I’m going to be back here:
Tenerife, Canary Islands. I’m up in the mountains at the time, which is why I look so omgfreezing. I’d also just had the flu, thus ruining most of the first week of our trip. And we’d managed to get the hire car impounded. We’re going to try to do better this time around. Mostly, though, we’re going to see these guys:
Three monkeys! Awwww!
We booked late because we were really hoping to be able to go somewhere a bit warmer/different, but we were once again thwarted by the fact that you can hardly fly to ANYWHERE direct from Scotland in the winter. This makes me sad. This, however, makes me happy again:
I am always properly coordinated with my surroundings. Even when my surroundings are a cage full of monkeys.
(I’m actually wearing that sweater right now, funnily enough. I should shop more.)
(That was a joke, obviously. Shopping more is the last thing I need to do.)
(I probably will, though. I mean, there is a really good branch of Zara right around the corner from the hotel. I know, because I brought most of it home with me last time.)
This December is the 10th anniversary (!) of my first “date” with Terry, and it’s also the 5th anniversary of his kidney transplant, so it’s a bit of a landmark month, which we’re very much looking forward to celebrating in the sunshine – or, at least, we hope we’ll have sunshine: you can never really tell at this time of year!
In other news, I’m considering getting a fringe, in order to hide the “11s” that have appeared between my eyes, as a result of all that frowning/squinting/ageing like an old hag I do. I know I’ll hate it if I get it, but I’m hating the 11s even more, so it may be the lesser of the two evils. Or maybe not.
Tagged hair, monkeys, tenerife
Hey, guess what I appear to have got as an early Christmas “present”? Did you guess “another freaking cold?” Congratulations, you win the house cup! Now please shoot me…
Yep, just in case the flu I had the week before my holiday and the flu I had DURING my holiday wasn’t enough, I’ve had a mild-ish head cold since we got back. (I say mild-ish, of course, because I am a drama queen, and ALL my colds are terrible, life-threatening affairs.) Clearly, then, these repeated illnesses mean there is something very wrong with me, and I am probably going to die. Merry Christmas, everyone! Ho ho ho!
Anyway, I’m guessing no one is actually reading this, because you’ll all be off enjoying the holiday, so I thought long and hard about what to give you all as a Christmas present from me to you, and eventually I realised that the best! gift! ever! was staring me in the face: a blurry mobile phone picture of Terry with a monkey on his head! You are welcome.
And one of me (I’m the one in the stripey sweater…):
Also, speaking of stripey sweaters, I’d just like to say that the only reason I wore that one was because I thought it would, like, totally match the monkeys:
You have to think about these things, you know? And OK, it was a little bit embarrassing to have turned up wearing the same outfit as a monkey (I mean, GOD, social death!) but hey, I like to think THAT’S why they liked me so much. Not because they just recognised me as one of their own.
Anyway, clearly I have about a million photos that are exactly like these three, and equally clearly, I am going to show you every single one of them soon, and there’s no point pretending otherwise, but for now, to the main point of this post, which was to wish you all a merry Christmas – I hope you all have a great holiday, and that Santa Claus brings you all the monkeys gifts your heart desires! We’re now off to the parental home for a couple of days so you’re safe from monkey pictures from the time being – HAPPY CHRISTMAS!
P.S. – If you really can’t wait for me to get round to posting the photos of the holiday, the Flickr set can be found here, in all its glory….
Tagged holidays, monkeys, tenerife
Did you miss me? Did you? Did you? Actually, on second thoughts, don’t answer that…
So, we got back late last night after a three hour delay in an airport in which every second flight seemed to have been either cancelled or diverted somewhere else. The place was just one seething mass of humanity, with people crammed into every available space, tucked under chairs and swinging from the ceilings like monkeys. Somehow, though, we survived, and have returned from our holiday to a towering pile of junk mail and an even bigger one of laundry, yay!
Some holiday highlights that I may or may not bore you all with later:
1. How the flu followed me from the UK to Tenerife, forcing me to spend the first three days of my holiday shivering under a pile of blankets, beach towels and assorted items of clothing, convinced that I was doomed to die far from home, in some Spanish hospital where I did not speak the language and therefore would be powerless to prevent the battery of hellish, experimental tests and procedures they would no doubt subject me to.
2. How, instead, I made a full recovery, and felt a bit stupid for having made Terry hire a heater for our hotel room, because, hello, it wasn’t THAT cold!
3. How it WAS quite cold, though: overcast most days, requiring sweaters and jeans/trousers to be worn most of the time, sometimes in multiple layers.
4. How I hadn’t actually packed many of the aforementioned items, having allowed myself to believe that it would, in fact, be blisteringly hot at all times, and no warm clothing would be required. (A particularly stupid move on my part because I’ve been to the Canary Islands out of season before, and I KNOW the weather can be chilly).
5. How this horrendous packing job of mine (look, I had the flu at the time, I obviously wasn’t thinking straight, OK?) “forced” me to visit the Zara near our apartment no less than seven times.
6. How I also visited the Mango close to our apartment often enough that I could probably draw you a map of that store, and everything in it, in my sleep.
7. How we managed to get our hire car impounded, and had to pay 119 euros to get it back.
8. How our apartment was located directly above a KARAOKE BAR. That was LOUD. Every night. Have I ever mentioned how much I HATE noise?
9. How, on our first Saturday night there, we were woken at 5.30am by an open air rave which we at first thought was happening in our bathroom, so loud was the music, but which actually turned out to be coming from the car park opposite the apartment. And which went on until 8am, even after 10 police cars showed up and made them turn the music down slightly.
10. How we insisted on being moved to another apartment after that.
11. How the new apartment was located next to the pool, which had a bar which played loud music all the livelong day. And into the night.
12. How it also had a double bed which was dressed with sheets belonging to a single bed. If you’ve never tried that particular combination, all I can say to you is: don’t.
13. How, actually, none of these events prevented us from having a fantastic time. No, really.
14. How we went to visit MONKEYS. And the monkeys came and sat on us, and put their little hands into ours, and tried to undo the knot in my halter neck top.
15. How I enjoyed this so much that I insisted we go back to visit the monkeys a second time.
16. How I then talked obsessively about monkeys for the rest of the holiday, and am still talking about them now. God, I want a monkey.
17. How we saw dolphins in the wild, from a speedboat which we got completely to ourselves, to sail close to the biggest cliffs we’ve ever seen. Amazing.
18. How an American bald eagle flew over our heads and touched me with his feet.
19. How we went to a water park on a sunny day and were flushed down a giant plughole.
20. How we drove up Mount Teide, on a road where we were above the clouds almost the whole time.
21. How we ate a LOT.
22. How, even although I’ve made it sound like a complete catalogue of disasters, we had a truly fantastic time. And I wish I was still there. Good job Christmas is coming up to distract me…
 Not photoshopped. Just looks like it.
Tagged holidays, tenerife, Travel
The weather forecast for this week says snow. SNOW. And I know I hardly ever mention this here AT ALL, but I really don’t like the cold (did I mention I don’t like the cold?), so with the “snow in October” warning came a feeling that the last straw had been reached, the camel’s back had been broken, the metaphors well and truly mixed. In other words: I HAVE HAD ENOUGH. Enough.
And so it is that on December 7th, Terry and I will be flying here:
 Sunshine! Bring it! As predicted in this entry (just call me The Predictathon…) we’re going to Tenerife. Yes, I know, it’s not nearly as exciting as Cuba, or Australia, or Dubai, or all of those wonderful-but-expensive-and-very-far-away places we would have liked to have gone, but it’s a five hour flight from Glasgow, is still hot in December and, above all, is cheap. And really, when your main priority is to lie in the sun for a couple of weeks and remind yourself what it feels like to get dressed in the morning without having to involve every item of warm clothing you own, that sounds pretty good to us.
I’ve only been to Tenerife once, as a surly teenager, and Terry hasn’t been at all, so it should be something new for us. We’ve picked a quiet resort that gets good reviews and has lots of nice restaurants and shops, but isn’t party central (because we are old, obv) and we’re hoping to just, you know, relax. Which will be great, given that I’ll have to write eleventy-one blog posts before I go so I still get paid.
Right now, it just can’t come soon enough…
Tagged holiday, tenerife, the weather
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